Thanks to WordPress, creating a website has never been easier! Whether you're a budding blogger, a small business owner, or someone with a passion project, WordPress provides a user-friendly and customizable platform to bring your website to life.
In this guide, we'll walk you through the process of building a WordPress site in three easy steps, so you can share your ideas with the world.
Step 1: Choose a Hosting Plan and Domain Name
The foundation of any successful website is a reliable hosting plan and a memorable domain name. Here's how to get started:
Selecting a Hosting Plan:
Research Hosting Providers: There are numerous hosting providers available, each offering different plans with various features. All hosting providers are not the same so make sure to do your research to find the best fit for you. Hosting companies should be evaluated on the following criteria:
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Speed and performance
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Ability and track record to keep your site secure.
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Scalability to grow with you as needed
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Cost effective
WordPress is the most extensible and widely used platform on the web, so it’s important to choose a hosting partner for your WordPress site that knows what they're doing. Both Hosting.com and WordPress were established 20 years ago and from our inception, our focus has remained the same: providing our customers with the ultimate hosting experience. Renowned for our speed and reliability, we offer plans to fit various budgets and the flexibility to scale as your website grows. By choosing Hosting.com, you ensure you have reliable and fast hosting to set your website up for success. Don’t just take our word for it– check out what other customers have said on TrustPilot and see why our customers choose us!
Choose a Plan: Hosting plans typically come in different tiers, catering to various levels of website traffic and requirements. If you're just starting, a shared hosting plan is usually sufficient. As your website grows, you can upgrade to more robust options.
At Hosting.com, we have plans for all different levels and budgets: from shared, to managed Linux VPS hosting, to Dedicated Servers. For super easy setup, choose Managed WordPress hosting. These plans are geared towards WordPress users and offer fast and easy setup for WordPress sites.
Register a Domain Name:
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Brainstorm Domain Names: Your domain name is your online identity - make sure to choose one that reflects your website. The best domain names are memorable and would be relevant to your website content.
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Check Domain Availability: Use a domain search tool to ensure that your desired domain name is available. If your first choice is taken, get creative with variations or consider using different domain extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.).
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Complete the Registration: Once you've found an available domain name, complete the registration process.
By the end of this step, you'll have secured a hosting plan and a unique domain name which will lay the groundwork for building your WordPress site.
Step 2: Building Your WordPress Website
Install WordPress and Create Site:
Before you start building your site you will first need to install WordPress. If you have selected a plan like our Managed WordPress hosting plan, the installation is done for you. Otherwise follow the instructions here to get started.
In addition to installing WordPress, If you want to take the hassle out of setting up a new site, all our managed plans come with a quick site launcher preinstalled. It will guide you through building and launching your site and allow you to get started in minutes! Choose the type of site you want to build, its goals, your design preferences and the pages you want to build. You can even choose from thousands of responsive WordPress templates right in the launcher.
Choosing a Theme:
Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to the ‘Appearance’ tab and select ‘Themes’ Here, you can browse through a variety of free and premium themes. Make sure to choose a theme that aligns with the purpose, style, and functionality of your website. Once you've found the perfect theme, click the "Install" button, followed by the "Activate" button. Your website will now have a new look based on the selected theme.
Select and Install WordPress Plugins:
WordPress plugins are like apps for your website and can add extra features and functionality to your site. To explore the plugin library, navigate to "Plugins" in the dashboard and click "Add New". You can also use the search bar to find specific plugins you want to install and activate.
Navigate to "Plugins" in the dashboard to add new plugins
Whether you want to enhance SEO, add a contact form, or integrate social media, there's likely a plugin for it. Here are some of our favorites:
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Forms - Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms
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SEO - RankMath, All in One
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Page Builder - BeaverBuilder, Guten, Elementor
Once you find the plugins you want to use, you will want to make sure you look over the customization settings as most plugins come with options that allow you to tailor your site and optimize performance.
Step 3: Set Your Website Up for Success!
Elevate your WordPress site with these proactive measures for a seamlessly optimized and secure website. Here are some things to look at and adjust to ensure your WordPress site is operating at its best:
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Performance: Make sure to utilize things like page caching and image optimization, as well as Minify CSS,HTML & Javascript. Optimizing your site is important and will greatly improve your site performance, create the best user experience, and will help improve your search engine rankings.
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Regular Updates: It is important to keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date. This helps secure your website if you have the latest security patches. This also ensures that you have all new features available.
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Regular Backups: Set up automatic backups of your site for peace of mind.
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Utilize TurboHub: We have created a WordPress Dashboard for our WordPress users. This makes it easier for people to make many of the optimizations above as easy as a click! It’s now offered on all shared and managed WordPress plans.
Congratulations! You now have a WordPress site!
In conclusion, opting for our managed WordPress hosting provides a seamless and efficient solution for website owners. By auto-installing WordPress, the initial setup becomes a breeze and by utilizing TurboHub, it simplifies the process of implementing crucial optimizations for your WordPress site. Remember, you can use page builders too, like Bold Grid.
Get started today with managed WordPress hosting!
By following these easy steps, you've successfully built a WordPress site from the ground up! As you navigate your WordPress site, experiment with different themes, plugins, and customization options to make your site truly unique. Happy WordPressing!
